Canadian LNG faces finance fight

The exodus of international partners and the global gas glut raise doubts about the economic viability of an already challenged sector

Canada was hoping to catch the mid-2020s next global LNG export wave in a big way when a Shell-led consortium announced FID for the first phase of the massive LNG Canada project in October 2018.  The nascent Canadian LNG industry plans to produce the “cleanest” gas in the world, given the country’s abundant and cheap hydropower and world-leading regulatory and corporate efforts to mitigate methane emissions. But this may not be enough to attract investors.  Proposed LNG projects in Canada tend to have relatively high capital and transportation costs. The regulatory regime is also costly and time-consuming to navigate—and will become even more so following legislation passed by the federal go